Work has always been about solving problems. How to increase revenue, how to reduce expenses, how to efficiently deliver products to the customer etc. The tools with which we’ve solved problems have changed over the years. Assembly lines and heavy machines were the tools in the industrial age. In the post industrial era we started to rely more on computers and our brains as the tools for solving these basic business problems. These became our tools.We are in the midst of a transition. The tools are becoming more intelligent with robots, artificial intelligence and cognitive computers.

Most of us (at all levels of employment) will end up with Amplified Intelligence not Artificial Intelligence replacing us. Amplified Intelligence is being pushed by Deloitte as they try to carve out a space in the noise of consulting expertise (wisely). Think of it as what happened when

we moved from a man in an apron beating metal (the blacksmith),

to a foundry with a floor manager and

then to engineers inputting correct heat settings on a furnace;

the output (pure metal) did not change, the tools just got better.

In the era of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning you and I just happen to be the blacksmith (without the apron of course). AI and Machine Learning will be force multipliers for how you and I do our work. They already are in many sectors. I’ve heard it said that the future of work won’t be based on how much data is out there, it will be based on how you use that data. But you already knew this...

What you don’t know is that even the most junior analyst in your company will now be able to draw deep and game changing insights from the application of quantum levels of cognitive computing power to the analysis of all the data/information available to your organization (structured, unstructured, related and dark). Ponder that…your 15 years of experience in a particular sector will matter less than it does now in a future where artificial intelligence is used to amplify every organizations capabilities.

An unintended but unsurprising consequence here will be that the best talent will become even better at what they do once their talent is amplified. Every one has a pretty good camera phone that amplifies our ability to take good pictures but not all of us will be able to take award-winning-gasp-inducing pictures. Same will be the case in organizations. Hold on to those super talented employees who are about to become superheroes...

Hierarchy and power in the typical corporation, for the most part, as always been based onhow the ‘manager’ cognitively knew more about a problem than the new ‘analyst’ and could instruct the analyst on how to solve the identified problem. When that is no longer the case, since the knowledgeiscomputed, captured, stored and freely available to all within the organization, your value to your organization

will have to come from your understanding of your customers,

your ability to harness all the resources to achieve the desired outcome for the customer and

(probably) your intuition about the best way to deliver customer results.

It’s pretty ironic; in a world where intelligence is artificial/amplified your value as an employee within an organization or as a product/service provider will depend on how much more human and much more intuitive you are than competitors since we’ll all have similar levels of amplification.